


The Red Paladins

by bazzledazzlewriting



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, MCD, Main Character Death, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), i need season 8 fanfiction is the only thing keeping me alive, im sorry, some gore???? idk there's blood mention, sorry - Freeform, thats the only fluff, they play truth or dare, two main characters die, you know which ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 21:59:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15782943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bazzledazzlewriting/pseuds/bazzledazzlewriting
Summary: Keith and Lance get stuck on the astralplane together and they slowly start to realize their feelings for each other.________“Truth or dare?” Keith says, hints of excitement in his voice. Lance, bless his soul, picks truth.“Do you remember the Bonding Moment?” Lance’s face twitches.“Whaat? Ppht, no,” he says with the voice of someone who’s obviously lying. Keith raises an eyebrow.“Are you lying to me? Keith? The leader of Voltron?” Lance huffs.“Fine, fine, I remember it, mullet.” The brightest smile comes across Keith’s face as Lance crosses his arms and pouts. Keith laughs.





	The Red Paladins

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically just another idea for what could happen in season 8 that combines the theories of Keith and Lance getting stuck on the astralplane together and what that would be like I guess??? I don’t know this is just 4 thousand words of pure angst because I felt like writing it and I don’t think this will happen in season 8 I just heard there was an episode called “The Red Paladin” and I went with that.

Keith opened his eyes to find himself looking into a pair of blue ones. He felt hands on his shoulders, but they were almost ghostly and he could hear the person-- Lance-- shout out his name. He gasps, pulling away from him. 

Lance chuckles in that frustratingly cute way. “Ha. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Keith stutters over his words, but he can’t seem to get anything out. Lance sits down beside him.

“Lance... what’s the last thing you remember?” Lance scrunches his brow. His smile soon turns into a frown, his expression darkening.

“We were fighting the galra... You shouted something and then... Then I woke up here.” Keith runs his hands through his hair, looking up at the sky, his eyes wide.

“Lance?”

“Keith?” Keith’s lip trebles slightly. He looks up at the sky, wondering what’s going on back down at Earth, if Hunk, Pidge, and Allura know what’s happened. If there’s a way for them to come back.

“Lance... I saw you die.” 

Lance laughs, throwing his head back and laughing in the way that makes your whole body shake.

“Oh my god you actually made a joke.” Keith scrunches his brow in annoyance. 

“Lance I’m not joking. I saw you die.” Lance rolls his eyes. 

“Please. No one can kill the Tailor.”

“Since when is your name Taylor!” Lance just laughs.

“I’m not dead, Keith. If I was, I wouldn’t be able to do this,” Lance says, laying down in Keith’s lap, looking up at him with his tongue sticking out. It was true, Lance felt as solid as any other living person would be and his body was warm, but that couldn’t erase what Keith had seen. What this place was.

“Lance I’m serious.” Lance sits back up, looking back into Keith’s eyes, an eyebrow raised. 

“Still think you’re joking.”

“WHY WOULD I JOKE ABOUT YOU DYING IN MY ARMS?” Keith shouts, tears starting to form in his eyes. He sniffles, turning away from Lance and hugging his knees to his chest. He wipes his tears on the colar of his jacket, but every time he closes his eyes he sees the battlefield and his team. He let them down. He let Shiro down. He let Lance down.

“Hey man...” Lance touches Keith’s shoulder. Keith’s body shakes, and he closes his eyes tightly before turning back to Lance, expecting him to make fun of him or something because that just seemed to be the relationship they had. 

Lance surprised him by hugging him, which caught Keith off guard. For a moment Keith freezes, unsure how he was supposed to respond, then he relaxes into Lance’s arms, stuffing his face into his jacket. 

“What happened?” Lance says softly. Keith pulls away from him, wiping the tears from his eyes. 

“We were fighting the Galra and you got out of your lion to save this woman and her baby and then they shot you--” Keith sniffles. Lance looks down at the ground, parts of it coming back to him.

“I came over to try and get you out of danger, but the Galra were everywhere. I tried to hold them off but I couldn’t....” Keith takes a shaky breath, winding his fingers through his hair. 

“I thought I got them all and I thought you were safe. I heard you breathing behind me... and then you were screaming.” Lance’s gaze is blank as he recalls the scene that Keith was describing. He remembered looking up at Keith, his hand pressed to his side where blood soaked his fingers and thinking how cool he looked. He looked like a goddamn superhero with the sun shining down on him as he raised his sword to protect Lance without hesitation. 

Then a Galra solider managed to sneak past both of them, standing right in front of Lance, a blade held high. Lance was just able to turn around and scream before the Galra solider drove the knife into his heart. 

Lance sits back, his head spinning. 

“This can’t be happening.” Keith rests his chin on his knees, his brows drawn together in a pouty manner. Lance thinks of all the things that will never happen now. He’ll never get to see his nieces and nephews grow up. He’ll never get married. He’ll never taste Hunk’s cooking again or hug any of his friends. Everything he’s ever known, the whole life that he had set ahead, it was  _ gone _ . 

Everyone he’s ever loved is gone, except for Keith. 

“If I’m dead, why are you here?” Lance murmurs.

* * *

 

“Keith! Lance! Where are you?” Pidge shouts. The Green, Yellow, and Blue lion are under heavy fire, dodging blasts left and right while trying their best to guard people running away from the chaos in a massive mob. Currently, Pidge and Hunk were working together to distract the Galra fleet while Allura helped the earth citizens get out of the way of danger, even going as far to bringing some of them aboard her lion to get them away faster. 

There’s the crack of the mic as Keith comes on. 

“We’re over by the school. Lance’s hurt I’m trying to get him back to his lion.” Pidge huffs, firing at a Galra ship and causing it to erupt into flames. 

“Well hurry. We can’t take this much longer and Allura needs help evacuating citizens.”

“We’re on our way.” The fight continues for a while longer, Pidge and Hunk taking out as many ships as they can. Allura finishes evacuating the citizens and joins them.

“Where’s Keith and Lance?” She shouts as she narrowly avoids being shot with a giant purple ray. 

“We don’t know!” Hunk shouts. Allura narrows her eyes, scanning the battlefield around them. She can make out a bunch of Galra soliders rushing at a pair wearing red and blue. 

“THERE!” She flies over, starting up the Blue Lions weapons to take out the mob around the pair. But just before she fires there’s the sound of an ion canon being charged up for fire. She turns just in time to see the blast fired, directly at the Black Lion, Red Lion, Lance, and Keith. There’s a bright flash of purple light and the dust settles. Over the com, Allura hears Keith grunt, and then nothing. 

“Lance? Keith?” Silence. She flies over the area, searching through the wreckage. The light in the Black and Red Lion’s eyes has gone dark. 

“LANCE! KEITH!” And then she sees their bodies. Allura cries out, putting her hand over her mouth, tears falling from her eyes. 

“ALLURA WHAT’S WRONG?” Pidge shouts. 

“PRINCESS ARE YOU OKAY?” Hunk says. Allura gulps. 

“Keith and Lance are dead.”

* * *

 

“Truth or Dare?” Lance says, kicking his legs back and forth. 

“Excuse me?” Lance rolls over.

“You’ve never played truth or dare?” he says with a smirk, raising an eyebrow. 

“I’ve  _ played _ truth or dare but why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you want to play  _ now _ ?” Lance shrugs. 

“I don’t see us getting out of here so may as well try to pass the time.”

“Pass the time until what?” Lance huffs.

“Do you want to play or not?” Keith sighs, sitting down. 

“Fine.” Lance gets a goofy grin on his face that makes Keith want to both punch him and kiss him. God, Lance was an idiot for not realizing how much Keith loved him. 

“Truth or Dare?” Lance says again. Keith sighs, rolling his eyes. 

“Truth.”

“Oh come on you’re supposed to pick dare.” Keith crosses his arms. 

“Fine. Hmmm....” Lance chews his lip, trying to think up something good. 

“Is it true that you and Acxa are dating?” Keith raises an eyebrow. 

“What? Me and Pidge have a bet going.”

“No. We’re not,” Keith says. Lance bites his lip. 

“Well I guess it’s a good thing I’ll never see Pidge again. I owe her twenty bucks.” Keith rolls his eyes. 

“Truth or dare, Lance?” 

“Truth,” he says confidently. Keith, one of the most unoriginal people in existence, decides to go with one of the most common truths of all. 

“Who’s your crush?” Lance almost hesitates for a moment and a blossom of hope sparks in Keith’s chest. 

“Allura obviously,” Lance says. And it’s gone. 

They play for a while longer, actually sharing a few laughs between each other. Lance was the master at embarrassing dares, making Keith’s whole face go red. 

But overall they had fun. It was a sort of bonding moment without the almost dying. In fact....

“Truth or dare?” Keith says, hints of excitement in his voice. Lance, bless his soul, picks truth. 

“Do you remember the Bonding Moment?” Lance’s face twitches.

“Whaat? Ppht, no,” he says with the voice of someone who’s obviously lying. Keith raises an eyebrow. 

“Are you  _ lying  _ to  _ me _ ? Keith? The leader of Voltron?” Lance huffs. 

“Fine, fine, I remember it, mullet.” The brightest smile comes across Keith’s face as Lance crosses his arms and pouts. Keith laughs. 

“C’mon it’s your turn.” Lance chews his lip. 

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth.” Lance looks at him with defiance.

“Do you remember me from the Garrison?” 

“No?” Keith answers truthfully. “I remember your twin brother, Taylor, though.” Lance coughs.

“Uh Keith I don’t have a twin brother.” Keith’s eyes widen, looking over at him.

“What?”

“I have a twin sister, but I don’t have a twin brother. And her name’s not Taylor.” 

“I’m gonna kill Shiro.” Lance laughs nervously. 

“I have no idea what’s going on.” Keith huffs. 

“You kept calling yourself “The Taylor” so I thought that was your name! And Shiro said it was.” Lance bursts out laughing, his whole body shaking. 

“Oh my god, Keith.”

“What!?” 

“You’re adorable.” It kind of slips out, two words that weren’t meant to be spoken. A blush spreads over Lance’s face as he looks away from Keith and Keith finds himself looking away as well, also blushing. 

“So uh.... truth or dare?” Keith says.

* * *

 

The three paladins of Voltron plus the former leader of Voltron all bowed their heads solemnly as they stood in front of two graves, one marked with a blue Voltron symbol, the other marked with a red one. Ironically enough, both graves were in the same graveyard as Lance’s abuelita and Keith’s dad. Around them was various different people in the Paladins life. There was Lance’s family with his thousands of siblings, Keith’s mom, Krolivan, Acxa, Hunk’s family, the Holts, Coran, Romelle, Iverson, as well as a few old Garrison friends of the two. The service was more of a private one, more for the friends and family of the deceased than the general public who knew them as heroes. The ceremony for that would be later. 

Everyone tried to keep the mood a little lighthearted, telling stories of the two, both embarrassing and praising. The paladins talked about how Keith helped pull the team together to lead and how Lance was always there for them. Shiro whispered over their grave, saying he was proud of the both of them and he was sorry. 

Every time someone tried to finish a story, it was met with tears. 

Lance was the boy who thought nobody cared for him or even realized he existed. He thought that the world would be better without him, that his team would be better without him. After all, he was just there for laughs, right?

Keith was the boy who was detached from everyone. He thought that nobody cared because he kept distancing himself, setting himself apart from everyone. He was always so alone and he thought he would die alone as well. 

Both could never be so wrong.

* * *

 

“I wish I would’ve given Hunk one last hug before I left,” Lance says, trying to be light-hearted. It wasn’t working. 

Their game of truth or dare ended a little while ago, both of them starting to run out of truths and out of dares. They were lying down next to each other now and looking at the stars, not knowing how much time has past or how long they’ve been gone. 

“Do you think they’ve had the funerals yet?” Lance says, trying to smile. Trying to joke when he knew that everything was gone. 

“Stop it,” Keith says. 

“What? I’m just saying.”

“Just stop,” Keith says, turning over, away from Lance. Lance raises himself up on one arm, looking down at him. 

“What?” Keith says, sticking out his bottom lip. Lance sighs, flopping back down. 

“Nothing just... I don’t understand.” Keith raises an eyebrow. 

“Understand what?”

“Why you’re here.” Keith narrows his eyes. 

“What you want me to leave?” He says, sitting up. Lance grabs his shoulders, sitting a little too close. It made Keith’s heart race. 

“NO!” Lance says. Keith huffs. 

“Well then what?” Lance sighs. 

“I don’t know. I just always thought when you died you went to heaven or something and saw your family instead of being stuck on the astralplane. Or at least if I did get stuck on the astralplane, why am I not alone like Shiro was? Why would you be here?” Keith scrunches his brow. Lance did have a point...

“Maybe it’s because we both were Red Paladins?”

“Maybe...” Lance says, sounding unsure. Keith sighs, laying back down to look at the stars. He could see two stars shinning brightly, one blue and one red. He almost laughed to himself of the irony. 

“Or maybe....” Keith turns to him, only to be surprised by how close Lance is. Their noses almost touch. 

“What?” Keith whispers. It almost looks like Lance is blushing as he turns away. 

“Nothing. It’s stupid.”

“No what is it?” Lance takes a deep breath, closing his eyes. He was definatly blushing. A lot. 

“I don’t know it’s cheesy.”

“ _ Lance.”  _ Lance turns to Keith, his eyes looking anywhere but at him. 

“Well you know. Sometimes people say..... people say that soulmates share a heaven together.”

* * *

 

“Pidge you need to go to bed,” Hunk says. He was on his way back to his room himself when he saw that Pidge’s light was still on. It was almost four am at this point. 

“What are you doing anyway?” Pidge rubs her eyes, yawning. She was sitting at a desk, her laptop open and papers everywhere around her, some crumbled up and some not. She looked like death. 

“I was researching how the Galra made Shiro’s clones,” she says with a yawn. Hunk sits down on Pidge’s bed, figuring that if she told him what was running through her head she would get some sleep. 

“Why?” Pidge ruffles through the papers. 

“It’s quite amazing actually, how they were able to biologically engineer an exact copy of Shiro. The genetic makeup of the two is almost identical--”

“Pidge. Why are you bringing this up again?” Pidge sighs, taking her glasses off for a moment and running her hands through her hair, messing it up. 

“I just... What if Allura can bring them back? Like she did with Shiro?” Hunk takes a deep breath, trying to stop himself from breaking down again at four am in the morning. It was actually the reason he was up to begin with. Hunk and his family have always been close to the McClains, which meant that Hunk was always hanging out with Lance and his twin sister since they were the same age. When they became paladins of Voltron, Hunk soon found himself growing close to all of the paladins. They were his friends. They were his family. 

“Pidge I think we should both start heading to bed,” Hunk says with a big breath. Pidge clenches her fists. 

“No.” 

“Pidge it’s late...” Pidge runs her hands through her hair again, picking up various pages and going over to Hunk. The writing on them was a mess, most of it fragmented thoughts and some of it symbols from what Hunk could only guess is the Galra language. Pidge must have been looking through the files they collected off of Galra ships during their adventures. 

“I’ve been looking into it and I think we have everything here on Earth to do it. The only factor that isn’t science is the magic part and Allura just might be able to replicate what Haggar did--”

“Pidge--” 

“I can get started tomorrow I’m just going to need something from them, hair or something. Fingernails.  _ Anything _ .”

“Pidge why do you want to make clones?” Hunk says, slightly worried. Pidge looks up at him, her jaw set. 

“If we make clones of Lance and Keith then- then maybe Allura can bring them back. Like she did with Shiro and his clone’s body.” Pidge shoves the pages into Hunk’s hands. Hunk sighs, figuring he might as well entertain the idea, at least for a little bit. He reads through the research, his eyes widening more and more as he reads. 

“Pidge!” He shouts in excitement, hugging her tight. Pidge grins. 

“We have to wake up the others.”

* * *

 

Keith sits up quickly, gasping for air. Lance backs away from him. 

“Sorry! I-I shouldn’t have said that it was stupid I--”

“Lance.” 

“It’s probably just because we were both pilots of the Red Lion I--” 

“ _ Lance _ .” 

“You probably think I’m weird now god I just made things super awkward--” Keith doesn’t hold himself back any longer. He grabs onto Lance’s jacket, pulling him to him, and kissing him. Lance gasps, eyes wide in surprise before he closes them, threading his fingers through Keith’s hair. Keith’s heart pounds in his chest, not believing what is happening.  _ Lance McClain is kissing me _ . 

Keith is the first to pull away, breathing heavily, a blush spreading over his face and onto his ears. He keeps his forehead touching Lance’s, their breath mixing together. And then... he starts laughing. He starts laughing because he finally did it. He finally kissed Lance after wanting to do it since their bonding moment. He’s had these feelings for so long that it was a relief to finally get them out.

“Why are you laughing?” Lance says, almost worried. Keith sighs. 

“I kissed you. I finally kissed you.”

* * *

 

“You sure this will work?” Allura says, almost skeptical, looking at the two bodies on the ground. They’re splitting images of Keith and Lance, but they are still cold and lifeless. Pidge chews her lip.

“I mean I guess I don’t know for sure it all there are a lot of unknown factors, especially because we don’t even know if they’re in the astralplane—“

“It’s worth a try,” Hunk sums up. “What’s the worst that can happen?” Allura nods and takes a deep breath. Around her is Coran, Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge, all of them trying not to get their hopes up, just in case it doesn’t work. She touches her hands to red, trying to do what she did when she found Shiro. When she opens her eyes, she sees the stars of the astralplane and looks around.

“Keith? Lance?” She calls. She squints, looking around her for any signs of life. In the distance she sees two figures leaning against each other, their backs turned to her, their whispers carrying across the plane. She starts running towards them.

“Keith! Lance!” They can’t hear her. They don’t turn towards her, even when she’s close enough to touch them. She bends down to touch Lance’s shoulder, but it does straight through him, as if he were a hologram. She pulls back, furrowing her brow.

“C’mon. I can get you out of here…” But they don’t acknowledge her. They carry on their conversation, looking at each other. Allura huffs and leaves the astralplane.

* * *

 

“Keith that’s not funny.”

“What’s not funny?”

“You tapping my shoulder. I know that joke.”

“I? Didn’t tap your shoulder?”

* * *

 

Allura gasps, turning to the rest of her team. They look at her expectantly.

“I saw them. They’re okay. They’re together, but I can’t get their attention. I need help.”

“What do you mean?” Shiro asks.

“We need to try calling them all together.”

“How would we do that?” Hunk asks, frowning. Allura bites her lip.

“Maybe if you guys held my hand or something while I reach in I can take you to them? I don’t know I saw it in one of your Earth TV shows.” They look at each other and Pidge shrugs.

“Might as well give it a try.” Shiro stands on one side of Allura while Pidge and Hunk stand on the other, Pidge taking Hunk and Allura’s hand, and Shiro taking Allura’s other hand. On Allura’s command, Hunk and Shiro put their hands on the side of Red’s head and everyone closes their eyes.

One by one, they each appear where Allura was before. Now Keith and Lance are standing up, looking around, their faces marked with confusion.

“Do you see anyone,” Lance says. It sounds like it’s coming from a tunnel.

“No,” Keith replies.

“Lance!” Hunk starts to call. “Keith.” He starts running towards them, followed by Pidge, Shiro, and Allura. There are tears in his eyes.

“Keith! Lance!” They keep calling, growing louder and louder.

“Stop saying my name,” Keith snaps at Lance.

“I’m not saying it,” Lance says innocently.

“Lance, Keith, it’s us,” Shiro grunts. “We’re going to get you out of here.” Keith and Lance look at each other, eyes wide. “Shiro?” they both say at the same time. Then their image flickers out.

“NO!” Allura shouts, running over to the spot where they just were.

“C’mon—“ Hunk says, closing his eyes tight. From behind them, they hear a gasp. Then….

“SHIRO! HUNK! ALLURA! PIDGE!” The four turn, eyes wide, their hearts beating.

“Keith? Lance?” They pair run to the four of them, tackling them all in a group hug. There are tears in everyone’s eyes as Keith and Lance are both hugged tightly.

“Lance you need to stop dying,” Allura scolds. Almost simultaneously, Keith, Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro exclaim, “this isn’t the first time you’ve died?!” Lance laughs nervously.

“Uh.” Keith punches his arm.

“HEY WHAT WAS THAT FOR?”

“That’s for dying twice and not telling me.” Lance looks offended.

“C’mon we’re going to get you guys out of here,” Hunk says.

“How?”

“It’s Pidge’s idea. Sciency stuff mixed with magic stuff.”

“That makes sense,” Lance says sarcastically. Pidge punches his shoulder.

“HEY!”

“Everyone get into a circle!” Allura says. The Paladins do, in their same set up as before except with Shiro holding Keith’s hand, Keith holding Lance’s, and Hunk taking Lance’s other hand. Allura closes her eyes tight, hoping that this will work.

The four Paladins resurface, gasping. Allura’s eyes fly open and she lets go of Pidge and Shiro’s hands. Her right and left hand are now glowing, one with a blue light and the other with a red light. She takes a deep breath, walking over to the two bodies on the ground and touching their shoulders. Using all of her energy, she pushes their souls into the body, wincing slightly at the pain of it.

The two fly up, almost catching Allura off guard as she stumbles back.

“What. Was that?” Keith says, rubbing his face. Lance is looking down at his hands.

“You’re back,” Allura gasps, smiling. Then she passes out.

“PRINCESS NEEDS THE HOSPITAL.”

Everything after is a flurry of motion. Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, and Coran help Lance, Keith, and Allura back into the Garrison where they take them into the emergency room. Lance and Keith are given check ups to see if everything is in order, which, for the most part, it is. Within the hour, Allura wakes up, back to normal, but the doctors all recommend that they give it at least a day before they’re on their feet moving again.

Lance’s family soon shows up, all of them crying and hugging him tight. His nieces and nephews don’t entirely understand what happened, but are happy to have him back. Keith’s mom shows up, hugging Keith tight and promising to never leave him again.

 

A week later, Keith finds Lance in the graveyard. It’s a dark and cloudy day, with rain threatening to come. The Garrison had slowly started to release the information that Keith and Lance were back, giving them some freedom to go out in the world. It was so weird, being back. Keith found himself being more cautious, watching as he crossed the road when he never did before. But more importantly, he watched after Lance.

Keith saw Lance sitting down, leaning against his gravestone, looking at the flowers left there, looking like he was about to cry. Keith sighs, walking over and sitting by his own grave, looking over at Lance through his bangs. Lance snorts. 

“What?” Keith says, blushing. Lance continues to giggle, taking a bit to stop. 

“Since when do you need glasses?” he says, still through chuckles. Keith pushes them up self consciously. 

“I don’t know I mean my eyesight wasn’t always the best to begin with.... and I guess Pidge just messed up a bit when she brought me back or something because I can’t see anything.” Lance snorts.

“You’re a dork.” 

“I can take them off if you want, but then I won’t be able to see your beautiful face,” Keith says, starting to take them off. 

“Noooooooo,” Lance says, pushing them back on. His hands linger for a second on Keith’s cheeks. 

“What? Do you like them?” Lance scoffs.

“They’re as stupid as your mullet.” Keith rolls his eyes, smiling slightly. Lance sighs, looking back up at the sky. 

“I can’t believe they went to our funeral,” Lance says softly. Keith takes a deep breath.

“It’s so weird being back.”

“It is,” Lance agrees. They sit in silence for a while longer, Lance starting to pick at the flowers.

“It’s funny,” he says. Keith raises an eyebrow.

“What’s funny?”

“How they could’ve put us anywhere else, with our families or anywhere else, but we were still buried together. As if they knew something we didn’t.” Keith reaches for Lance’s hand, causing Lance to jump slightly before squeezing it tightly. 

“Yeah....” Lance takes a deep breath. Keith looks over at him, concern etched on his face. 

“Hey Keith?” he says, turning to him.

“Yes Lance?”

“Do you want to go out and get like, food or something? And go to the movies?” A soft smile spreads across Keith’s face, a smile he saves just for Lance. 

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Keith says, mimicking Lance. Lance shoves him and they both start laughing, their laughter echoing through the empty graveyard, bringing joy to the sad place. 

“Yes. Absolutely.”

 


End file.
